The poker game went well with three hands and four players. Since Tori's knowledge of poker stopped by the game's existence, Loter had to share a hand with her and explain the rules as the game went. Of course, they accidentally touched hands consistently, and Loter had to whisper into Tori's ear every few minutes. Hardly paying attention to the actual game, Glacia blinked at Hiroku and giggled. To that, Hiroku chorted and rolled his eyes.

Afterward, they had dinner in the cafeteria, in which Loter discovered that Tori's favorite food was not miso broth. He told her the information came from her parents, and Tori explained that they had not been close for a long time. Before the atmosphere could become depressed in any way, Hiroku abruptly changed the topic.

The next day, Loter woke up earlier than Hiroku with a spilling excitement. He knocked hard on Hiroku's door until Hiroku opened it and glared with his lifeless eyes.

"What's your problem?" He came out of his room and sat on the couch in his white pajamas with purple elephant patterns. "The cafeteria is open in an hour."

"I'm just excited that Tori will join our class today. It's her first time receiving real education." Loter, wearing his usual white hoodie shirt and gray trousers, pounced onto the couch beside Hiroku.

"Real education," Hiroku repeated Loter's words with a sarcastic tone.

"Haha. Yeah, not really 'real education,' but she'll start learning math, and I'll be able to help her with that!"

"I'm sure she will love learning math," Hiroku chuckled, not changing his tone.

"Yeah, me too!" The obvious sarcasm flew over Loter's head without being detected.

Hiroku paused for a second and decided not to bring this up. He changed the topic. "By the way, what are you studying in the math section now?"

"Spectral theorem."

"I see." Hiroku, uninterested, nodded, hearing the theorem for the first time in his life. "I'm going to get ready. I can't sleep anymore." He yawned, slowly walking back into his bedroom.

After about two hours and several tens of minutes more, Hiroku followed Loter out of their unit. Hiroku was wearing his iconic purple crop top and a white pullover beneath it, with his two ponytails, one behind and the other atop his head. Changing took a lot more time than usual since he fell back asleep after entering his room.

While they were exiting the dormitory, Kiznaq happened to be coming in. They met at the front lobby just as the two exited the elevator. Loter waved naturally and gave him an open-mouth grin, yet Kiznaq's expression was stuck between a polite smile and a guilty frown. The corners of his mouth were the only parts of his face that were lifted.

"Uh, uh, hi, Loder. Hi, Hiroku." His hands were held aimlessly before his stomach. His elbows were bent into an awkward "L" shape.

Listlessly, Hiroku rolled his eyes and said, "We know what you want to say already, so spit it."

Kiznaq took a deep breath and said, "Righd, righd. Sorry, I'm sorry for whad I did. I should've dold d'is do Mr. Kashner. I was coerced. I'm so sorry." The apology was heavily disjointed, with a short pause after every few words. In those pauses, he would look away and quickly turn back to continue his sentence.

Loter, not so sure about the situation, turned his head and swayed his eyes between his two friends, choosing not to say a single word.

"Besides the fact that your action definitely violated the hero's ethics guideline, Ramiron and Key were the ones who got hurt."

"Yes. I've already dalked do Mr. Kashner, and I've med Key. I will dalk do Ramiron lader doday, brobably. I'm working on id."

Hiroku nodded, walking forward. As he went around Kiznaq, he called, "Come on, Loter. Let's go."

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"Oh, Okay!" Loter hurried up immediately. Going past Kiznaq, Loter glanced at him but only saw his eyes locked in the opposite direction.

Hiroku pushed the glass door open, walking out at a speed slightly slower than usual for Loter to catch up. "He intentionally helped Kirane to ambush you, Key, and Ram."

"Wait." Loter's face froze for a second before he proceeded. "That… Makes sense. He was never trying to be friends with her…" Loter looked down at his moving feet, shocked by the discovery.

"I know I don't have the right to forgive people on others' behalf, but Kiznaq is just a kid, and Kirane is gone already. It will be better if you forgive him," Hiroku said in his usual monotone, yet there was a sense of sincerity in his words.

Surprised, Loter said, "Don't worry. I don't think Kiznaq is a bad person. It's all Kirane. I know. It just feels weird. Also, I didn't expect you to say such a thing."

"You don't know me enough."

Loter tittered and said, "Well, we have a lot of time to work on that."

Hiroku glanced back, seeing Loter still smiling. A small upward curve discreetly appeared in the corner of his mouth. "How unfortun—" Before he could finish his second word, Loter pounced onto his back and hugged him by his neck.

After around a minute, they finally got to the cafeteria. Glacia, Ramiron, and Key were already finishing up. Loter reached his hand high up above his head and waved the moment he saw them. Key responded with his iconic up-nod. Ramiron grinned upon seeing them. Glacia did not lift her head up a bit while typing deftly on her phone.

Loter scurried to the table and asked, "When did you come back? Last night?"

"Earlier this morning." Key yawned while putting a piece of poutine into his open mouth. He was wearing a long-sleeved black jacket and a white T-shirt inside instead of his usual red tank top. His right arm was still plastered and hung on a sling.

"Did you buy this yourself?" Loter pointed at Key's fashionable clothing.

"One of the officers bought it for me, but it is pretty cool, right?" Key chewed and picked up another piece from his food carton. His head lightly bobbed as if he was in a good mood, yet he was not smiling in the slightest.

"Lot, by the way," Ramiron called. Her left arm rested on the empty chair beside her. "Tori was taken by the vice principal to go shopping. She will be absent for the entire morning. They just left." She then shoved her last, the sixth, slider into her mouth.

"Awww. I thought she would join us today. I was all prepared!" Loter pulled out a chair and sat down, reclining against the seatback.

"What do you mean by 'prepared'?"

"I've already rehearsed what I will say when she can't understand the math material."

Ramiron swallowed her food and asked, "What did you prepare to say?" Meanwhile, Hiroku came back to the table with two trays in his hands. One held a bowl of ramen on top. The other one had a plate of green pasta.

Loter tried to take a spoonful but winced when the hot rice touched his lips. He set the spoon aside and began delivering the "find x" speech that was supposed to be performed to Tori.

As Hiroku sat down beside Glacia, she glanced at him, hooked her arm around his, laid her head on his shoulder, and continued using her phone.

The rest of the day went by without a hassle, just like the days before the incident with Kirane. To Loter, everything seemed to have remained the same except for Key needing to play basketball with only one hand. Yet, Loter's vision was often limited compared to Hiroku's.

Key's brows were lower than usual. His flat lips failed to make fake smiles every single time. On multiple occasions, he zoned out when Loter was speaking. None of these signs escaped Hiroku's eyes, and none of them registered in Loter's mind.

After the training, Hiroku went to Key's dorm unit and knocked on the door. Key's roommate soon opened the door and said Key was gaming. Hiroku figured it was the case since Loter had locked himself in his room and had been shouting gaming terms for some minutes already.

Regardless, Hiroku knocked on Key's door. If time allowed, Hiroku would never choose to bother Key while he was on his computer. However, Key and Loter would probably keep playing until dinner and continue after that, so Hiroku really did not see another option here.

"One sec. One sec. I'm almost done." Key exclaimed inside his room.

Hiroku put his hands in his pockets and stood before the door, quietly waiting for Key to finish the match.

"Don't touch the pudding in the fridge, alright?" Key's roommate said before leaving the unit. Hiroku nodded in response.

Of course, it took Key a lot more than one second to open the door, not to mention that he actually forgot the person waiting and "unintentionally" played another match.